


The Tooth of the Matter

by Ninja_Librarian



Series: Shidge Week 2016 [6]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Day 6: Cultural Differences, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Japanese Shiro (Voltron), Married Couple, Shidge Week 2016, Shidge Week Day 6: Cultural Differences, Shidge Week: Cultural Differences, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-24
Updated: 2016-09-24
Packaged: 2018-08-17 01:14:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8124880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ninja_Librarian/pseuds/Ninja_Librarian
Summary: Mistakenly, Pidge thought that they and Shiro had already discovered all of the big, important cultural differences between them while still in the early phases of their relationship. But neither of them had realized just how different their cultural differences played into their childhoods until they had children.Cultural differences sure made life—and parenting—interesting.





	

Mistakenly, Pidge thought that they and Shiro had already discovered all of the big, important cultural differences between them while still in the early phases of their relationship. It hadn’t been surprising that there were those differences. After all, Pidge was American born and raised by parents who had both been born and raised in America with very little knowledge of any further ancestral history. All Pidge really knew was that they were some mixture of European countries and ancestry: a little bit of Scandinavian from her paternal grandmother’s line, a bit of German here, a bit of English there, a smidge of French, an interesting combination of Irish and Italian courtesy of some of their mother’s ancestors, and who knew what else. Pidge was somewhat cultureless in this regard, but didn’t mind that too much while growing up.

Shiro, on the other hand, had been born and raised in Japan until he was about eight years old, when his father accepted a job in America. But even though he had lived in America for just about half his life before the Kerberos mission, his upbringing was Japanese. Very little English was spoken at home and lots of traditional Japanese meals were consumed. There was plenty of western influence in the house, sure, but not in the way that the Holts’ house was almost dominated by it. Pidge loved visiting Shiro’s parents because of this, if for no other reason than they were suddenly submersed in culture, even if there were some parts of it that Pidge didn’t quite understand. They simply respected it and was grateful for Shiro sharing his culture with them.

They had thought that there would be no bigger surprise than when they had discovered that Shiro had one flaw: he did not like peanut butter. They did not easily forget the look Shiro had given them when they ate a huge spoonful of peanut butter straight out of the jar, a look that was a mixture of confusion, surprise and mild disgust. Pidge’s reaction to the Japanese version of peanut butter involved a lot more than ‘mild’ disgust, trying to figure out why anyone would want to eat the vaguely peanut-flavored frosting when they could have real-deal peanut butter. Try as they might, they couldn’t convince Shiro that American peanut butter was far superior to any other food in the world. He was simply amused at their adamancy.

The other differences weren’t as big, but most of them had come with the arrival of their children. Shiro was confused as to why one would give a child a third, middle name, but quickly agreed with the reasoning of “how else are they supposed to know when they’re in trouble?”. Pidge enjoyed dressing up the twins in traditional Japanese clothes the November they turned three, taking them to the shrine near Shiro’s mother’s childhood home for a traditional blessing for Shichi-Go-San. 

But neither of them had realized just how different their cultural differences played into their childhoods until they had children.

It all started when Hikaru lost his first tooth, of all things.

The five year old had come running up to his parents, eyes wide and bright, his smile wide and showing the new gap at the bottom of his mouth.

“Mommy! Daddy! Look!” He said, proudly showing them the tiny baby tooth.

“Alright!” Shiro said, reaching out to ruffle his son’s hair with a grin of his own. “It finally came out!”

“Congratulations!” Pidge said, gathering him into a hug.

“It’s not fair!” Hikaru’s twin sister, Hoshi, complained as she came stomping in to the room, looking thoroughly disgruntled. “My tooth’s been wiggly longer!”

“These things take time. Your tooth will come out when it’s ready, sweetie.” Shiro said patiently.

This did not soothe his daughter, who stomped her foot and pouted, arms crossed over her chest. The twins were the best of friends, but also a bit competitive, Hoshi more so than her brother. This was often to the point that Pidge would look Shiro in the eye before saying, deadpan, that they were raising Lance and Keith.

Shiro never disagreed.

“So, what do I do with it now?” Hikaru asked, his brow furrowing as he looked at the tooth in his hand. “Do I have to keep it?”

“Do you want to keep it?” Pidge asked. “Because you can. We could get you a special little box for it or something like that.”

“No. It doesn’t do much now that’s it’s lost.” Hikaru said musingly. He looked up at his parents. “So, what should I do with it?”

The poor child had no idea what he was getting into with such a simple question as his parents responded at the same time,

“Put it under your pillow tonight for the Tooth Fairy.”

“Go outside and throw it over the roof of the house.”

The room was very quiet after that as Shiro and Pidge turned to each other.

“What?” They said together, staring at their spouse with confused looks.

“Why would you throw a baby tooth over the house?” Pidge asked.

“Because it’s a lower tooth.” Shiro said, as if it were obvious. “Why would you put the tooth under a pillow?”

“For the Tooth Fairy!” Pidge exclaimed, as if it were obvious. “She, he, they, it comes and takes the baby tooth away while the kids are asleep and leaves a present in its place.”

“Like Santa Claus?” Shiro asked.

“Yeah, kind of.” Pidge said. “But the Tooth Fairy tends to deal more with cash instead of toys. And works a lot more hours than Santa.”

“But what does this Fairy do with the teeth? Why do they want teeth?”

“I don’t know! Some sort of Fairy-Land magic ritual, I guess! Why the heck would you throw baby teeth over the roof?”

“You only throw the lower ones over the roof! The upper ones you put under the porch!”

“Why? How does that even make sense?”

“Throwing the lower ones over the roof so that the replacement teeth will grow up, while the upper ones under the porch are so that they will grow down. Personally, I think that makes a lot more sense than a tooth-stealing, bribing fairy.”

“Just… throwing human teeth sounds really creepy…”

“And magical beings breaking into the house while you’re asleep isn’t creepy?”

They would have kept going, had it not been for the reminder that they were both grown adults, parents, and that their children were present when Hoshi said to her brother,

“You know what? I’m okay with you having lost your tooth first. Maybe by the time I lose mine, Mommy and Daddy will have figured out what to do with it.”

And so Shiro and Pidge turned to watch their slightly-smug daughter skip out of the room. They looked down at the still very confused Hikaru then at each other.

“Well, someday their therapist is going to think this is a really funny story.” Pidge said, rubbing their forehead with a sigh.

Cultural differences sure made life—and parenting—interesting.

**Author's Note:**

> Meet the twins from Day 1's vignette, Loving Every (Other) Minute!
> 
> Full names:  
> Hikaru Samuel Holt-Shirogane  
> Hoshi Anne Holt-Shirogane
> 
> Hikaru means "Light" and Hoshi means "Star".


End file.
